chuck hagel's now secretary of deference. it's a done deal. but not without a campaign to smear him by guilt by association. first the false story of hagel's ties to a nonexistent group called -- there's no such thing. friends of hamas. and here was rand paul on the radio earlier this month talking about this as if it actually existed. >> let me bring up one piece of information that ben shapiro at breitbart put out today. which is one of the foreign funders behind senator hagel that he has not yet disclosed formally is something called friends of hamas. if that is, in fact, true would that lead you to vote against mr. hagel? >> you know, i saw that information today also. and that is more and more concerning with each day there are new things coming out. >> and then just a few days later senator ted cruz of texas questioned whether hagel had been financed by north korea. or saudi arabia. >> we saw with his nomination something truly extraordinary. which is the government of iran formerly and publicly praising the nomination of a defense secre